The umpires need to be investigated.

[stellation]

For what it is worth, a news item just came through saying that the AFL rules committee admitted that the 50 meter penalty against Kieran Jack was a mistake!! Does us a lot of good now.

Ouch!

It will be interesting to see what the umpire's boss says about it, assuming they can be drawn to comment on it.

[ugg]

I don't think that's a fair summation of the article. Michael Christian gave his personal opinion of the matter, rather than speaking on behalf of the AFL lawmakers.

[penga]

Have we got several hawthorn supporters on this forum! Hodge performed a sling tackle on Sinclair and then Mcglynn. The following is an extract from the AFL website:

The AFL will crack down on sling tackles this year, paying free kicks for lifting tackles even before a player is dumped into the ground.

Not a soft free then? Ha.. #objective

[wolftone57]

Seriously. That's a @@@@ing joke.

How long are Hawthorn players allowed to hold onto the ball before disposing of it? Every single time it happened to us we get pinged.

I'm completely embarrassed by us 'being nice supporters.' That is complete bull@@@@ and so is this result.

i generally leave the ground and leave the anger there. But last night I couldn't. I was furious. I even accused the umpires of being paid to help Hawks win. They were that bad to us last night that is what first popped into my head. How much has your wife, family member on friend got on the game for you ump? Yelled it out in the third in fact.

Two very dubious 50 metres. The first was when Hannas went to stand the mark. He was called as the extra be the umpire and therefore impinging the zone. He was the man standing the mark you flog. If he wasn't in the right spot how about moving him to the right spot.

The second was when the Hawks got a free on the wing and Towers was next to the Hawks player and trying to run out of the zone. The Hawks player only just got the ball, a second after the umpire calls Towers for being in the zone. he was trying to leave the zone you flog and you are allowed to time to get out of the zone if you are in it when the free is called. Two crucial frees that simply were not there.

Free kick tally to that stage was 15-5 Hawks way. Did these frees have a bearing on the result? My bloody oath they did. Scored 1.1 from them.

Rohan is pushed so strongly in the back he ends up flat on his face in the turf. No free. He was pissed off to the hilt over that one and I don't blame him. did it have impact, my oath it did ball went free and Hawks got a goal. If Rohan had been paid he would have been 35-40 out and a pretty good bet.

Stratton yanks Buddy's hand from the ball in the marking contest, his hand is obviously gripping Buddy's wrist. Even Helen Keller could have seen that. The umpie says no free. It was 20-30 out.

Papley, I think it was Papley, is having a shot at goal two Hawks players enter the zone, one following a Swans player, the other following his teammate. The second player is not allowed in the zone. He also hit Papley in the back. This was a good example of entering the prohibited zone and should have been 50. Nothing.

Hawks players who see they are outnumbered simply drop the pill to the ground at their feet and then dive on it and create a scrimmage. This gives their teammates time to get to the contest at a stoppage. It is incorrect disposal and was done all night by them. not only that they also just drop the ball or hand the ball on in a pack. This is how they slow the game down then spread out of the pack. It is bloody incorrect disposal every day of the week.

Do I think the umpies were on the take? Probably that or just totally incompetent. Mind you that little bastard Ryan wouldn't give us a free even if he was told his life depended on it.

[wolftone57]

Hard to argue with that.
Looks like we do infringe more than most, or the umps reckon we do .
So apart from a professional foul, study the rules boys, even though some of them seem ridiculous (10m zone ).

It's not about studying the rules. The players know the rules. Sometimes you are going to get pinged. It is a physical game and therefore you are going to impinge some time. But what I think everyone is getting at is there is a pattern developing in which we are not given a fair go by corrupt officials & I tend to agree. Are they on the take or is the AFL making them play us hard? I don't know but what I do know is some of the umpiring I have seen this year has been some of the worst I have ever seen and that includes District Footy in Adelaide and that was pretty crappy. I heard that Nichols is a Footscray boy and grew up following the Bulldogs. If you look at his matches umpiring the Bullies this year you will find the ledger id firmly on the bullies side on his decisions. Double at least the frees he gives to other sides. We had him v Bullies and I'll tell you he was terrible to us. Not the others just him. But last night the whole lot were bloody unbelievably bad. Either that or incompetent. Now the AFL has admitted the 50 against Jack was wrong. Well AFL are you going to take the goal back? Wow I actually thought it was against Towers for infringing the zone (would have been wrong free anyway). Jack over the mark? He never moved him back or called him to come back two metres, three metres etc. What a joke.

[ugg]

The first one was against Kizza, not Hanners.

[bloodsbigot]

On Jack being penalized for 50:

"But if you looked at them (50m penalties), they were clearly there. I don't think anyone's disputing the fifties."
-Gillon McLachlan, 3AW Radio

OH BUT WAIT A SECOND GIL...

?I think it was a mistake by the umpire because he was already in there, he ran out immediately, he didn?t sprint but he was going quickly enough to get out of the area, realised he was in there and the whistle blew."
-Michael Christian, AFL?s Laws of the Game committee, Herald Sun


These clowns have no @@@@ing idea. They're corrupt @@@@ing liars.

[Blue Sun]

My biggest gripe was the non-call on Hodges dangerous sling tackle on Sinclair. Forget about the result of the match, who cares, Sinclairs health was seriously endangered in that tackle. A more acute angle and he could have ended up with a serious head/neck injury. I thought the AFL was cracking down on dangerous tackles. It should have been a free kick and Hodge reported on the spot. I hope the match review panel take a look at it. Whats their email address?

[Ludwig]

I generally don't like to blame the umpires because I think they are trying their best and are not consciously biased. I also realise that when I view Swans' games I'm biased and tend to the see the Swan frees missed by the umps more than the ones missed for the other side.

Having said that, I do sincerely think that the umpires have gifted Hawthorn 3 games this year with blatantly incorrect decisions.

I am thinking now the umpires subconsciously favour Hawthorn because of the wide belief that Hawthorn are best team so if they make a call that favours a Hawthorn victory everyone will just accept that the best team won anyway, the losers cry foul, but everyone moves on. The umpires come under a lot of scrutiny, but probably less so if they make decisions that favour the 'rightful' winner of the game. The umpires probably review videos of most of the games every week, if not all of them, and when they see Bruce McAveney spewing all over himself about how great Hawthorn are, it's hard not to have some influence on their decisions, however unintentional. For example, if they happen to pay an incorrect free to Sydney that leads to an easy goal that causes a loss for Hawthorn, there would be an uproar about how the game was stolen from the better team, because Hawthorn are always considered the better team, and when they lose, it's just because of some error, or they just didn't try hard enough because they know they can step up any time they want. I think that's Clarko's position about his club. When finals come around, they'll be on top.

I don't know what can be done about it. It just seems that with Hawthorn it's always Home Town Advantage.

[Mug Punter]

I generally don't like to blame the umpires because I think they are trying their best and are not consciously biased. I also realise that when I view Swans' games I'm biased and tend to the see the Swan frees missed by the umps more than the ones missed for the other side.

Having said that, I do sincerely think that the umpires have gifted Hawthorn 3 games this year with blatantly incorrect decisions.

I am thinking now the umpires subconsciously favour Hawthorn because of the wide belief that Hawthorn are best team so if they make a call that favours a Hawthorn victory everyone will just accept that the best team won anyway, the losers cry foul, but everyone moves on. The umpires come under a lot of scrutiny, but probably less so if they make decisions that favour the 'rightful' winner of the game. The umpires probably review videos of most of the games every week, if not all of them, and when they see Bruce McAveney spewing all over himself about how great Hawthorn are, it's hard not to have some influence on their decisions, however unintentional. For example, if they happen to pay an incorrect free to Sydney that leads to an easy goal that causes a loss for Hawthorn, there would be an uproar about how the game was stolen from the better team, because Hawthorn are always considered the better team, and when they lose, it's just because of some error, or they just didn't try hard enough because they know they can step up any time they want. I think that's Clarko's position about his club. When finals come around, they'll be on top.

I don't know what can be done about it. It just seems that with Hawthorn it's always Home Town Advantage.

I agree 100% with this post. I think it is generally weak to blame umpires when you lose but last night I lost my gear at the end and gave the umps a gobfull as they walked past me. Not proud of that tbh but they were exceptionally poor last night. To have two such marginal decisions in such an important game with such serious ramifications happen while the Hawks went untouched was pretty hard to take

[Maltopia]

On Jack being penalized for 50:

"But if you looked at them (50m penalties), they were clearly there. I don't think anyone's disputing the fifties."
-Gillon McLachlan, 3AW Radio

OH BUT WAIT A SECOND GIL...

?I think it was a mistake by the umpire because he was already in there, he ran out immediately, he didn?t sprint but he was going quickly enough to get out of the area, realised he was in there and the whistle blew."
-Michael Christian, AFL?s Laws of the Game committee, Herald Sun


These clowns have no @@@@ing idea. They're corrupt @@@@ing liars.

I lost any trust that Gil had integrity with his extremely weak act of saying Eddie's pathetic initial non-apology re Caroline Wilson was acceptable.

[Swans500]

Well more than 24 hours has elapsed and I am STILL bitter....Never usually lasts THAT long....Something different about it this time....

[bloodsbigot]

Well more than 24 hours has elapsed and I am STILL bitter....Never usually lasts THAT long....Something different about it this time....

I think my other thread proves the hawks are indeed screwing with the system and cheating right under our noses. And the AFL is doing nothing about it.

[Ludwig]

I watched the replay paying half attention to umpiring. Of the 3 free kicks we received up to 3qtr time, 1 was a 50 mtr against Rioli, another was a deliberate OOB by Poppy and I can't remember the 3rd. But it is impossible to play 3 qtrs of football and commit just one of the typical fouls, like head high contact, incorrect disposal, holding or something like that. It's just impossible. There must be a mental state among the umpires that if Hawthorn do it, since they are the perfect team, it must be legal. I'm not saying they do it on purpose, but there must be a tendency to let the close ones go their way.

Longmire only said what he could say without copping a fine, but he was clearly upset about the umpiring.

[bloodsbigot]

I watched the replay paying half attention to umpiring. Of the 3 free kicks we received up to 3qtr time, 1 was a 50 mtr against Rioli, another was a deliberate OOB by Poppy and I can't remember the 3rd. But it is impossible to play 3 qtrs of football and commit just one of the typical fouls, like head high contact, incorrect disposal, holding or something like that. It's just impossible. There must be a mental state among the umpires that if Hawthorn do it, since they are the perfect team, it must be legal. I'm not saying they do it on purpose, but there must be a tendency to let the close ones go their way.

Longmire only said what he could say without copping a fine, but he was clearly upset about the umpiring.

They have good relationships with each Hawthorn player. So of course they'll be more lenient.